William Gladstone

“ Gentlemen, it is idle to talk of local government without control of the police. Control of the police means making local provision for the safety of life and property, and I affirm that the whole history of local government, from its cradle to its majority, has been the history of a system devised for this purpose before all others - the purpose of enabling the inhabitants of each district to make provision for the security of their own lives and properties. ”

“ A condemnatory verdict has long ago been pronounced, and in the whole public opinion and in the whole literature of every civilised country on this or on the other side of the Atlantic, you cannot find a single exception to the rule that every competent, every creditable, every weighty, every decent witness admits, and for generations has proclaimed, in terms most unqualified, that the long inveterate conduct of England towards Ireland has grievously lowered its high character and has been unworthy of its general fame. ”

“ There has been, unfortunately, that alternative before England for centuries; but in other ages, when enmity and not friendship was chosen as the alternative, it was the enmity of states or of classes, and not the enmity of peoples. But you have arrived at a point decisive in your history; and now for the future if, say after the next election, this enmity is to continue it will be the enmity of peoples and not of states. To see one country oppressed by the rulers of another state is heartrending. But gentlemen, this is not a question of cruel tyrants ”

“ It is a public work, and the cost of it justly appertains to be public to discharge. But that is not the only consequence of the same kind which appears, to me at least, to follow from the admission of labour candidates in large numbers, as a good thing not for themselves only, not for their own great class only, but for all classes and for the State at large. I place the extension of the number of these labour members upon a ground no narrower that that. It is for the benefit of us all that there should be a considerable increase of the number of labour members of Parliament. ”

“ We wish well to all further reductions which can be achieved without violation of the rights of any man. We wish in an unqualified manner to see the progress of such changes, for the lot of labour it is absolutely certain will, as long as this human dispensation lasts, continue sufficiently severe, and it ought to be a subject of unmixed joy to us that there have been improvements which have not militated against the principles of liberty. ”

“ On her side she reposes in full trust on the evidence of the recent facts; she believes that when the opportunity arrives, the general sense of the country will ratify the judgement that has already been given at nearly a hundred points of its surface; she believes that the entire people of Great Britain will, by a great and decisive majority, determine to meet and to dispose of those demands which are now made upon them, she believes, alike by their honour, by their interest, and by their duty before God and man. ”

“ According to an account which has been supplied me by a gentleman who has himself undertaken the responsibility of authorship on the subject, there is, on the contrary a small increase of ordinary crime in Ireland within the last few years, but of that you hear nothing. No crime seems to be important for exhibiting the state of Ireland in the view of the present Government, except that which touches the collections of the rents of the landlords. But, gentlemen, there is another consideration which has operated more powerfully still in disposing the Irish people towards habits of legality. ”

“ I admit that one of the reasons why we rejoice is this, that whatever local government they establish in Ireland must assist the Irish people in the demand for their national rights. Every popularly-elected body in Ireland, whatever you may call it, will be a new focus of thought, and will give a new vent for its expression. ”

“ Those results, which for a long time were overlooked or ridiculed by the organs and the voices of our opponents, they now begin to see and to admit to be somewhat formidable to their plans, and the only refuge which remains to them is in "the play of other parts of the constitution." No, gentlemen, we believe that those elections which have tested here, there, and everywhere, in constituencies of every possible variety, the sense of the people, have afforded us a safe indication of that which is to come. ”

“ For many long years there has not been a time when the people have been more alienated from the action of many members of those bodies, and, above all, from the spirit at headquarters which for the most part controls and governs them. But another counteracting cause of happier origin and happier spirit has powerfully worked upon the Irish people, and that is the friendship of the people of Great Britain. They have seen the conduct of the Liberal party, and they have interpreted that conduct as the true index of the sentiment of the country at large. ”

“ Is it, then, because they think their policy contributes to the strength of an empire? But the strength of an empire consists in the union of the entire country and all its inhabitants, and it is not strength but weakness which results, and must result from compelling the people of Ireland to continue in permanent alienation from the legislation of this country on those matters which lie nearest to their heart, and which they believe to be the most vitally connected with their interest. ”

“ They will raise up a question which will take precedence of every other question, because upon that alone would depend whether this country was or was not a self-governing country, or whether, on the contrary, there was a power, not upon the throne or behind the throne, but between the throne and the people, that would stop altogether the action of a constitutional machine, now, as we trust, if not perfected, yet brought nearer to perfection, by the labour, the struggles, the patriotism and the wisdom of many generations. ”

“ By, and since, the first Reform Act, the electorate has been multiplied tenfold, and the extension has, in my deliberate judgement, unquestionably raised the tone and spirit of the proceedings in the House of Commons. I hope, nay, more, I believe, that the House of Lords will not accept the deplorable suggestion tendered to them by the Prime Minister. I believe that they will decline to let their position in the Constitution be used for so ruinous a purpose. But this I know well, that if they should be reduced to a policy so unfortunate, they themselves will be the first to repent of it. ”

“ Let them, then, reflect on this; the verdicts that the constituencies have spoken are not only that which is sober, just, and true, but also they speak what everyone will understand: they speak the inevitable. Upon these verdicts Ireland relies. You have watched the conduct of Ireland in the difficult circumstances of the last nine months, and that conduct I do not hesitate to risk saying on your behalf has evoked in every breast a responsive voice of sympathy, and an increased conviction that we may deal freely and yet deal prudently with our fellow-subjects beyond the Channel. ”

“ We have fought, ladies and gentlemen, we have indeed fought a long and severe contest. When we look back to the year 1886, we look back upon an epoch of great and crushing defeat; but every one of the five years which has elapsed since the period of the defeat has brought upon our horizon a brighter and again a brighter light. ”

“ I tell you frankly that, in my opinion, nothing proves more distinctly the soundness of the heart and mind of the people of England, than the good choice they have made of their labour representatives. ”

“ I am quite sure that as far as regards those who, at headquarters, if I may use the phrase, are charged with the central management of the concerns of the party, they will not lag behind, but will exhibit the utmost disposition, whenever a constituency is favourable to the claims of a labour candidate, to forward the accomplishment of their desire. But I proceed. If we are to have more labour members, more labour members, more labour candidates and members, there are certain consequences which follow from the adoption of these just principles. ”

“ Well, gentleman, the reputation of a country is measured by a standard which we can easily get at; it means what its neighbours think of it. The reputation of Russia at this moment is probably very high with certain parties within Russia itself, but would not, I am afraid, be quite so high if measured by the general opinion of the civilised world. But where is the general opinion of the civilised world, where is the reputation of England, with reference to its conduct to Ireland? ”

“ It is not the excess merely, it is the absolute surfeit of work that remains to be done - work that accumulates from year to year; and of work that is certain to fall more heavily into arrear in proportion to the prolongation of the rule of a Tory Government. Yes, gentlemen, it is a surfeit which makes it difficult now to choose the topics of address, and which will make it difficult hereafter, when the time has arrived, to choose proper subjects of immediate and preferential attention. ”

“ Further, I will add boldly that it will be their duty to enact compulsory powers for the purpose of enabling suitable bodies to acquire land upon fair and suitable terms, in order to place the rural population in nearer relations to the land, to the use and profit of the land which they have so long tilled for the benefit of others, but for themselves almost in vain. That also is among the great duties which lie before you in connection with the labour question. ”

“ Whatever your victory may be, with all your intelligence and all your zeal, you will want the additional virtue of patience; for such are the demands of this vast Empire, extended and diversified beyond all precedent in human history, that without that patience, disappointment and even confusion might be the results of triumph. ”

“ But our ground is that they are conferring a benefit on the State, and if they are conferring a benefit on the State, and if labour candidates, from the very definition of the term, are, in most cases, persons who are not in a position to bear the charges of residence in London apart from their homes and their usual occupations, I say nothing can be stronger, nothing can be more irresistible than the claim of such persons, of persons chosen by the constituencies, whose right to choose we admit, and who, in the case supposed, are exercising that right in a specially beneficial manner. ”

“ It is for us to carry to a decisive issue the question whether they are well justified in the interference which they so draw.
But, at the stage which matters have now reached, can we make no appeal to those who oppose us? Can we do nothing to reach their understandings, or to move their hearts? ”

“ But I will assure both Scotland and Wales that they have the unanimous support of the Liberal party. It does not depend upon those specially responsible for the conduct of Liberal affairs in Parliament which of these shall take precedence. Each of them has bold, resolute, and active champions who will not consent to wait, and who would be very wrong if they did consent to wait, and to suspend all their personal action until Home Rule has become law and until, in the new order and suggesting of the Liberal programme, their turn has come. ”

“ Well, lastly, gentlemen, we have the fact of the arrears of public business. You never can overtake the mass of work in which you are already involved, and which increases from year to year, until this terrible Irish controversy is out of the way. ”

“ Secondly, because Parliament in 1887, after the increase of offences had taken place, passed a remedial Act, a supplement to the Land Act of 1881, and in some important respects an extension of the Land Act. The consequence has been that the Irish people have received under the operation of that measure a great amount of relief from difficulties which they were unable to surmount, and therefore the rate of agrarian offences has largely diminished. These are operations with which all persons are familiar who have looked into the history of crime, meaning thereby agrarian crime, in Ireland. ”

“ Upon the further question whether it is possible to pass a compulsory law binding upon all labourers for reducing their labour to a certain time, or by a certain number of hours, I would say, before uttering a word on that principle, that I should be very glad to be assured that those who now receive for long hours very low wages for the short hours. ”

“ It is the language of our opponents at present that the Government deserve well of the country for these reasons: first, that they are going to introduce a Local Government Bill for Ireland; and secondly, that their policy in Ireland has been successful. A very few minutes will not be thrown away upon some examination of these propositions. A Local Government Bill is to be introduced, but it to be introduced in consequence of what may fairly be called a deathbed repentance, for this is the sixth year of the Parliament. There was a pledge at the last general election to have no coercion. ”

“ But we have striven to make the work of the present Administration in its foreign policy easy, because we think, as far as our information has gone - and we have been so tranquil on the whole subject that our information, I admit, is but partial - that so far as we could discern, its spirit had undergone a beneficial change, that appeals to passion and to pride are no longer sent broadcast over the country, and that on the contrary a more just, more genial, and more kindly spirit is exhibited by the departmental portion of the activity of Lord Salisbury. ”